The Los Angeles Lakers’ search for a new head coach might be over soon. According to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania, the Lakers have already identified preferred candidates for the position and will soon begin with the last stage of the process.
The list includes former Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts, ex-Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, and current Milwaukee Bucks’ assistant Darvin Ham. The trio is expected to head to Los Angeles for in-person interviews in the coming days.
Stotts is the most accomplished of the previously mentioned candidates, having made the postseason eight consecutive times with the Blazers before being fired at the end of the 2020–21 campaign. His best run with Portland was during the 2018-19 season when the Blazers made Western Conference Finals. Stotts previously coached the Atlanta Hawks and the Bucks as well.
Atkinson’s only head coaching job was with the Brooklyn Nets. He led the franchise for three-and-a-half years, mostly during its rebuilding years, before stepping down midway through the 2019-20 season. The 54-year-old player has since served as an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors.
Ham is the wild-card, having no previous NBA head coaching experience. However, his work as an assistant under current Bucks’ head coach Mike Budenholzer made him a popular candidate for several head coaching jobs in recent years.
The Lakers decided to fire their head coach Frank Vogel after a disastrous 2021-22 season that saw the team finish with a 33-49 record and miss the playoffs. Several high-profile names were linked with the vacancy in recent weeks, including the Philadelphia 76ers’ Doc Rivers and the Utah Jazz’s Quinn Snyder, but it appears that the LA team opted for a less glamorous name.
